Know Your Judge: Julie Ann Robinson

This week’s Know Your Judge features Julie Ann Robinson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.

President George W. Bush nominated Robinson to the federal bench in 2001. She became the first African American named to the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. Robinson has served as chief judge since 2017. Before becoming a federal district judge, Robinson served as a bankruptcy judge for eight years.

Robinson presided over an excessive fee lawsuit against Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. that settled this week for $4.875 million. Earlier this year, Robinson refused to dismiss claims that the Kansas-based financial company loaded its 401(k) plan with affiliated mutual funds that carried excessive fees and performed poorly when less expensive options from other companies were available.

In August, Robinson sentenced a Kansas business owner to 50 months of imprisonment for embezzling money from her employees’ 401(k) accounts. Robinson also imposed five years of supervised release and a $4.3 million fine.

Number & Statistics

Robinson usually grants full or partial dismissals of employee benefit lawsuits. She has done so 83.3 percent of the time, while only denying 16.7 percent of the motions to dismiss filed before her. She is also more likely to grant full or partial dismissals in employment law cases. She has fully or partially dismissed nearly 70 percent of employment law cases.

Bloomberg Law

Robinson’s record before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit is solid as none of her rulings on employment, labor, and benefits matters have been fully reversed. The Tenth Circuit—the federal appeals court that reviews decisions of federal district courts in Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming Utah—has only partially affirmed one of her rulings involving employment law.

Bloomberg Law

Looking for more analytics on judges? Check back each Wednesday for our Know Your Judge feature or try Bloomberg Law’s Litigation Analytics. And contact us if there’s a judge you want us to highlight.